Our story
As an Irish-Spanish co-owned place, we're passionate about our food and wine and even more passionate about having fun!
Tapas are in our blood! It had been our dream to open a tapas bar in Dublin for over 10 years.
Anna, a native of Barcelona, has worked, lived, breathed and partied in Dublin for the last 20 years and comes with a wealth of ideas and experience in what a true tapas bar should be. For Anna, food is her life. Her passion for food dates back to cooking in the kitchen with her grandmother and working in her aunt’s bar as a kid in Spain.
Vanessa has always dreamt of opening a tapas bar. Born, bred and buttered in Dublin, she studied Spanish many years ago in Trinity College and has spent over 30 years travelling to and from Spain in search of the perfect tapa. You could say, “It’s been a lifetime passion”.
As locals to the Wexford Street-Camden Street area, our plan was to open a place that we would like to visit with our own friends and families - to create an atmosphere that’s all together inviting, fun, and down-to-earth. This is not about haute cuisine, nor flash interiors. It’s about a place that people can feel at home, relaxed and enjoy their food.
Why Lola?
Lola as a name has two sides to its coin. On the one side, there’s Grandma Lola who everyone begs, borrows and steals to try and get her recipes. But then there’s Lola of the night – better known for her fiery flamenco and salsa moves - a touch of authentic dishes with the fun of fiery entertainment!
And of course, there’s the abundance and influence of quite a few fiery Lolas in our families too!!
We keep a gallery of our family on the wall in Lola's to keep an eye on us and remind us each day why we're doing what we're doing and why we love it so much too!
If you'd like to learn more about why we chose certain dishes on the menu, simply click the "more info" on the relevant dish and you can find out where they originated from and why.. just a little extra info for you to check out!
To understand a little bit more about why we love what we do, check out our interview with thetaste.ie
If I didn’t love it I couldn’t do it. When we opened the restaurant, we said we opened the doors to our house, because before we had the restaurant we entertained people in our house, now that we have the restaurant we entertain people here.